“Three! Two! One!” A cluster of students, each hanging from bright blue cloth straps, squeezes out three last pull-ups as Ice Chamber co-owner and trainer Steven Khuong counts off the final seconds of the exercise.

It’s 6 a.m., and the industrial Albany street outside is dark and silent, but inside the gym on Cleveland Avenue by the freeway, you’d never know it. KT Tunstall’s music is blasting from the loudspeakers, and Boot Camp class is whipping about 30 sweating, red-faced students into shape.

The Ice Chamber (www.icechamber.com) started in 2002 as a personal-training business, with Khuong and his wife, Mayachela Garcia, training clients at their homes. Now, the company has its own facility and more than 300 members who pay anywhere from $165 a month for classes to $75 for a 50-minute personal training session.

Khuong designed a personal training program to help Alan Pagle, a 53-year-old Berkeley police officer, handle the physical demands of his job.

“A police officer is always running, climbing, pushing cars, wrestling with people who weigh more than you do,” Pagle said. “Staying in shape is a major concern for me.”

Susan Reeve, 45, of Albany joined the Ice Chamber to lose weight and get in shape.

“I had no interest in exercise classes before,” said Reeve, who attends 6 a.m. Boot Camp five days a week, in an interview earlier this year. “But this is different. I’ve lost 14 pounds and gone from a size 14 to a size 8.”

Obviously, there is no lack of places for people to work out in the Bay Area, where Curves, 24 Hour Fitness, Club One and dozens of other clubs offer plenty of locations. Why, then, does Reeve drag herself out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to go to the gym?

“Because the workout changes every day, it keeps me from being bored,” said Reeve, whose husband also works out at the Ice Chamber. Their young daughter, Riley, also tags along frequently to watch her parents work out.

Reeve said the personal attention she gets from Khuong and Garcia is another plus.

Boot Camp combines running, free weights, gymnastics, Pilates, yoga and martial arts exercises, plus the infamous blue straps Khuong designed himself. The straps are anchored to the I-beams in the ceiling at the gym, about 20 feet in the air. They are used for conventional pull-ups, horizontal modified pull-ups Khuong calls “body rows,” and pull-ups that incorporate squats.

“Specificity of exercise is a good approach. It’s something physical therapists do with their patients. It’s good that (the Ice Chamber) teach not only cardiovascular exercise but correct body mechanics, posture and how to use your muscles to the best mechanical advantage.”

Khuong and his wife are certified trainers through the nationally known National Strength and Conditioning Association. The gym also offers kickboxing and core strength classes at different times of day, as well as personal training.

The original inspiration for the business was when Garcia suffered a miscarriage, Khuong said. Responding to the crisis, Khuong said his wife “turned herself from a sedentary person to one of the strongest, most athletic people I know.”

Garcia began training five days a week, he said, and changes were visible within three months, with the transformation complete after a year. Garcia, who, like her husband, attended UC Berkeley, had been an academic counselor and Khuong was a recruiter in Silicon Valley for high-tech firms, but the couple decided to switch career paths and dedicate themselves to physical fitness as a livelihood.

They began studying independently for the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification, a prerequisite title for training people at the collegiate level, Khuong said. Every year, they attend workshops to earn continuing education units and stay up on the latest techniques. Most recently, they attended a workshop in San Diego held by USA Weightlifting, which is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

The couple got started on their new career by offering personalized training in clients’ homes and gradually expanded the business until it moved into the Cleveland Avenue facility in January 2005.

“Now we just had our first baby,” said Khuong, 32. “Our son was born in April.”

His wife, 31, is chronicling her postpartum comeback on the Ice Chamber blog.

FOR MORE INFO.

The Ice Chamber is located at 544 Cleveland Ave., Unit D, in Albany. Visit http://www.icechamber.com or call 510-558-0807 for more information.

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